FOCUS INTERVIEW
sit next to an SME on one side and someone
from a large corporate on the other, corporate
coworking has yet to move into massive
volumes.”
There are many advantages in opting for
a flexible workplace, whichever model you
choose. “Firstly, there is a significant costbenefit
to corporates, when you consider that
the UK alone spends around £10 billion per
year on servicing o ice space for an estimated
10 million workers,” says Mroncz. “With the
average occupancy of an o ice desk as low
as 30 per cent on specific working days, and
real estate is the second most expensive cost
to a business, if you can reduce this kind of
wastage, that has significant benefit to your
organisation.”
Another major incentive is in talent
acquisition and productivity. “To attract and
retain recruits, it’s no good asking them to
undertake a huge commute to and from work.
Many may prefer to work from home at least
some of the time. The same adage goes for
productivity. If you’re asking someone to travel
two hours each way a day and expect them
to be as productive when they walk into the
building as if they hadn’t done that journey,
that is naive. By o ering a flexible workspace
you can give them the opportunity to work at
or near home, and with their commute being
shorter they can spend their time working, not
travelling.”
With the traditional o ice fast becoming a
thing of the past and the workplace becoming
more of a collaborative space, flexible
workplace providers are also leading the way
with innovative designs, argues Mroncz. “These
may range from encased chairs for private
conversations or individual work, the utilisation
of colourful furniture within breakout areas,
and less traditional desking with innovative
‘team’ spaces.”
34 SEPTEMBER 2019
Finally, he adds, sustainability is a key
factor, or should be, in the adoption
of flexible workspaces. “We all have a
responsibility around our carbon footprint,
and commuting has a significant impact on
the environment.”
FLEXIBLE TRENDS
With so many good reasons to opt for more
flexible workspaces, what could possibly
hold occupiers back? The biggest objection
for many organisations towards flexible
working in the past, says Mroncz, was
culture. “Organisations had been used to
managing sta by knowing that their people
are sitting where they can see them, at their
desk. Work culture now has shi ed into
managing by output and results, so leaders
may be managing someone remotely who
might be based at a di erent site, or even
country.”
Another concern has been that with a
proliferation of smaller flexible workplaces,
city centres that house traditional
commercial properties could be emptied.
“This seems unlikely when you consider that
the largest procurer of London o ice space
last year was WeWork, which took 300,000
square feet at the Shell building.”
While many traditional landlords and
real estate agents are launching their own
flexible brands, some of the leading corporate
tenants are reallocating their unused space.
For example, Santander recently opened the
latest in its worldwide series of Work Café
spaces aimed at clients and non-customers in
an old branch in Leeds that closed last year.
The idea is to o er a bank, coworking area
and co ee house together in a single place.
Alongside this, says Mroncz, many
corporates opt for a ‘hub and spoke’ solution.
“The idea is that the organisation will utilise
a main building supported by regional hubs
around the world, but instead of taking a
traditional o ice lease, they opt instead for a
serviced o ice solution.”
One O ices iQ client closed its costly and
underused portfolio of national o ices,
retained a few hubs and gave the rest of the
sta access to coworking spaces. This not
only saved the company £2.5 million but also
led to a 20 per cent rise in productivity. This
was because the (mainly sales) sta spent
much less time travelling, as they could use a
base nearer to their client base and get back
to work straight away a er meetings.
What, however, is the future for FM in this
brave new world of flexible o ices? Mroncz
argues that far from losing their role as
managers of traditional workspaces, flexible
o ice providers will require FMs’ expertise to
ensure clients are happy with the services on
o er. “The challenge for FM,” he concludes,
“is in moving away from the idea of fixed
bricks and mortar empires and embracing
the opportunities inherent in working with
flexible space providers.”